"Mon Dieu! I see nothing so surprising in that! Fortune is capricious! She treated Léodgard harshly, and now he is her favorite. Instead of losing all the time at cards, he wins—that is the whole story!"
"Not to-night, however, for the charming Herminie has just won a hundred rose crowns from him at lansquenet; she was sitting by me just now, counting them."
"Give me some cyprus, my masters; it is my favorite wine, and this is simply perfect."
"I' faith! if Léodgard is losing, he doesn't show it," said the fair Camilla, a young courtesan with almond-shaped eyes, who had returned to the banqueting room to take some sweetmeats from the table. "He is throwing his gold and silver about to-night with the indifference of a nabob. He is an accomplished cavalier now."
"It must be that his father, the old marquis, has decided to make a sacrifice, to loosen his purse strings; for his winnings at the card table could not have changed Léodgard's position so quickly."
"That is very probable; but when anyone questions him on the subject, that devil of a Léodgard loses his temper; he says that it is nobody's business."
"He is not fond of talking about his affairs; generally speaking, he is not expansive."
"Oh! we must not say that before the fair Camilla! Surely she knows the secrets of her most submissive adorer; a cavalier servant has no secrets from the lady of his thoughts.—Is not that true, adorable Camilla?"
"Mon Dieu! seigneurs, I am less inquisitive than you are! So long as Léodgard gives me everything that I want, what more would you have me ask him for?"
"Well answered!—Ah! my bucks, that will teach you to question a woman!"